Ali Guermazi, MD, PhD, MSc

Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Ali Guermazi, MD, PhD, MSc is a Professor of Radiology and Medicine, Director of the Quantitative Imaging Center, and Assistant Dean of Diversity and Inclusion at Boston University School of Medicine. He is the Chief of Radiology at the VA Boston Healthcare System. Prior to joining Boston University, he was Director of the Osteoporosis and Arthritis Research Group (OARG) at University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and then Director of Clinical Research at Synarc, Inc. in San Francisco. Before that, Prof. Guermazi spent 12 years in Paris and worked mainly at the prestigious Saint-Louis University Hospital. Prof. Guermazi obtained his MD from Sfax University (Tunisia), then his specialty from Rene Descartes University in Paris (France) and his PhD from Jikei University in Tokyo (Japan). He is Visiting Professor at Jikei University in Tokyo and the Prefectorial University in Kyoto, Japan.

Prof. Guermazi was Deputy Editor of Radiology for almost 7 years (2013-2019). He is currently Editor-in-Chief of Skeletal Radiology, the official journal of the International Skeletal Radiology and also the President of the International Society of Osteoarthritis Imaging since 2019.

Prof. Guermazi’s interest is in musculoskeletal diseases. Of particular note are his scientific contributions in the diagnosis, incidence and disease progression assessment of osteoarthritis using MRI. His work has focused on identifying structural risk factors for developing and worsening osteoarthritis. Prof. Guermazi has been involved as an MRI reader for the past 25 years in several large U.S. studies including the Health Aging and Body Composition (Health ABC) study, the Boston Osteoarthritis Knee study (BOKS), the Multi-center Osteoarthritis STudy (MOST), the Framingham study, Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI), and other large NIH-funded studies, as well as several Pharmaceutical-sponsored clinical trials.

Prof. Guermazi is also interested in Interventional nonvascular radiology and imaging in Sports Medicine where he is The Expert Radiologist to the International Olympics Committee and Paris Saint-Germain Football team. Prof. Guermazi is the author of over 670 peer-reviewed PubMed publications, 12 books, over 50 chapters and Investigator on numerous research grants related to MRI reading for Osteoarthritis. His h-index is 111. He is the recipient of many awards among these the OARSI Excellence in Clinical Research in 2018 and the RSNA Margulis Award for the Best Paper in 2022. He has been invited to lecture in more than 70 countries world-wide.

Publications

  • Published 2/16/2026

    Messier SP, Vigliotti MN, Rice PE, Pietrosimone B, Mihalko SL, Ip EH, Loeser RF, Hunter DJ, Guermazi A, Hill R, Saldana S, Bennell KL, DeVita P. Does Long-Term Lower Extremity Strength Training in Adults With Knee Osteoarthritis and Varus Alignment Reduce Knee Joint Loading During Gait? Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2026 Feb 16. PMID: 41693614.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 2/13/2026

    Bacon KL, Felson DT, Jafarzadeh SR, Hausdorff JM, Gazit E, Guermazi A, Roemer FW, Segal NA, Lewis CE, Nevitt MC, Kumar D. Association of Wearable Sensor-Derived Gait Measures With Cartilage Damage Over Two Years Among Adults With or at Risk of Knee Osteoarthritis. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2026 Feb 13. PMID: 41685951.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 1/2/2026

    Roemer FW, Collins JE, Hochberg MC, Kompel AJ, Diaz LE, Hayashi D, Jarraya M, Hunter DJ, Guermazi A. The role of radiography and MRI as screening tools and outcome measures in clinical trials of knee osteoarthritis: a perspective on the current status and outlook. Ther Adv Musculoskelet Dis. 2026; 18:1759720X251411062. PMID: 41488611.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 11/25/2025

    Couch JL, Patterson BE, Crossley KM, Guermazi A, King MG, De Oliveira Silva D, Whittaker JL, Girdwood MA, Culvenor AG. Knee Crepitus and Osteoarthritis Features in Young Adults Following Traumatic Knee Injury. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2026 Mar; 78(3):398-406. PMID: 40855080.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 11/21/2025

    Corrigan P, Lewis CL, Costello KE, Kumar D, Felson DT, Neogi T, Bacon KL, LaValley MP, Guermazi A, Roemer F, Nevitt MC, Lewis CE, Torner JC, Stefanik JJ. Relation of vertical ground reaction forces while walking to contralateral structural worsening in adults with unilateral knee osteoarthritis: the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study. Clin Biomech (Bristol). 2026 Feb; 132:106718. PMID: 41352273.

    Read at: PubMed

Other Positions

  • Chief, Radiology
    VA Boston Healthcare System
  • Assistant Dean, Diversity & Inclusion
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
  • Professor, Medicine
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Education

  • University of Sfax, MD
  • Jikei University School of Medicine, PhD
  • Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris VI), MSc